2012年5月22日星期二

As our sister blog Pop & Hiss points out

2 Chainz, a rapper named and known for his predilection for flashy jewelry, was arrested Tuesday at New York's LaGuardia Airport for toting an off-limits discount, cheap, louis vuitton shoes accessory: an alleged set of brass knuckles. Born Tauheed Epps, and featured on recent songs by Kanye West and Nicki Minaj, 2 Chainz was detained at the Delta Airlines terminal when airport officials found “metal knuckles” in his carry-on luggage, according to MTV News. A Port Authority officer confirmed the arrest to MTV and said, “The knuckles were in his personal bag and sounded the alarm.” Fellow hip-hop artists Big Sean and DJ Drama rushed to 2 Chainz’s defense on Twitter, saying that the offending item was not a set of brass knuckles but rather a four-finger ring, a staple hip-hop accessory since the days of Slick Rick and Big Daddy Kane in the 1980s. Big Sean said the ring spelled “hood” and added, “We had a shoot [sic] yesturday n he was rockin em,” while DJ Drama posted a photo of 2 Chainz wearing lv handbags 2012 the alleged ring and introduced a “#free2chainz” hashtag. The incident marks an otherwise good day for 2 Chainz, who will appear on the premiere episode of MTV’s “Hip Hop Squares.” The remixed version of the classic tic-tac-toe-inspired game show “Hollywood Squares” features such rappers as Common, Fat Joe and Ghostface Killah. As our sister blog Pop & Hiss points out, 2 Chainz is gaining professional traction with a gig on Drake's Club Paradise tour, his debut single "No Lie" and a well-received cameo on Minaj's "Beez in the Trap." about to be announced in two hours, so hold your rhinestone-saddled horses! Katherine Jenkins and Mark Ballas, William Levy and Cheryl Burke, and Donald Driver and Peta Murgatroyd are all still in the running for this year’s COVETED MIRRORBALL TROPHY (or what Donald’s mother very endearingly refers to as the “miracle ball”). Join EW’s live blog of the finale here. I’ll update this post with the third-place black suits for men 2012 finisher whenever that happens — and again with the winner at 11 p.m. ET. So SPOILER ALERT! The season 14 results… are… coming up, after the break!

2012年5月21日星期一

And that voice might sound a lot like Dwight Howard

It’s been a soap opera of a season for the Orlando Magic and now the first wheel has been set in motion in the team’s apparent effort to keep superstar center Dwight lv men shoes 2012 Howard. Coach Stan Van Gundy has been fired, and Otis Smith has mutually agreed with management to end his stint as general manager. Magic Chief Executive Alex Martins, in a news conference Monday, said that it was “time for new leadership and a new voice.” And that voice might sound a lot like Dwight Howard, who had been set to be a free agent July 1 before he agreed to a one-year contract extension when it appeared the Magic would not be able to send him packing by the trade deadline. At Monday’s news conference, Martins cited elimination in the first round of the playoffs in the past two seasons as playing a “primary role” in the decision to make the management change, according to the Associated Press. But it was no secret that Howard and Van Gundy –- louis vuitton man suit and Howard and Smith –- had problems with each other. And many in the organization believed the only hope for keeping Howard was to get rid of Van Gundy and Smith. Which the organization has now done, despite Van Gundy’s record as the winningest coach in franchise history. As The Times’ sister paper the Orlando Sentinel reports, an April 5 incident involving the media might have put Van Gundy on the road to split from the team. Van Gundy told a reporter that he believed Howard wanted him fired. He said he had heard it “from the top.” Then the All-Star center walked up, put his arm around the coach and ridiculed the story of dissension. Van Gundy walked away, and reporters peppered Howard with questions about the coach’s claim. On Monday, Martins still said that Van Gundy’s assertion was not true: “Dwight never asked me for Stan to be fired,” Martins said, according to the Sentinel. Will Howard have a say in the hiring of the next coach white sunglasses for men 2012 or general manager? That remains to be seen as the Magic and the team’s fans watch the drama continue to unfold.

2012年5月20日星期日

District Court for the Northern District of California

Rock stars, sports stars and other celebrities not accustomed to live television can often bomb — painfully — on Saturday Night Live. Remember Wayne Gretsky? No? vouis vuitton mens shoes How about Steve Forbes or Paris Hilton? All panned by fans and critics alike. So it came as a bit of a surprise to see Mick Jagger steal the show hosting last night’s season finale. And one of his best bits was a political song about Mitt Romney. Yes, about Romney. Jagger introduced the song “Tea Party” by saying “My roots are in blues music. I love the blues because in any era the blues talked about what’s on people’s minds. So here’s a blues that I wrote about the presidential election.” The song then began with a classic blues riff and repeat: “If you want to sleep in the West Wing, yeah you got to strategize a bit. If you want to sleep in the West Wing, you wanna keep that private boat yeah you got to strategize a bit. Yeah you’re gonna have to raise about 100 million dollars, or you’re gonna end up so deep down in the s**t.” (Only one note Mick: They don’t actually sleep in the West Wing.) Both funny and unexpected, Jagger’s lyrics also included one of the best lines in a memorable night: “Yeah, Mr. Romney’s a hard working man. And he always says his prayers. Yeah but there’s one little thing about him. Don’t even let him cut your hair.” The Rolling Stones front man was also notably at ease during his opening monologue, and hysterical in stints as a flamboyant, closeted gay actor in “Secret Word,” louis vuitton ladies tee shrits and as a shy insurance salesman in a sketch where cast members Fred Armisen and Bobby Moynihan sang karaoke versions of Stones’ hits, complete with imitations of the Jagger swagger. Just watch the whole show. Mick stole it. The chief executives of Apple and Samsung are expected to meet tomorrow in a San Francisco federal court to try to work out their patent dispute, according to a Reuters report. Apple's Tim Cook and Samsung's Choi Gee-sung, as well as their general counsels, were ordered in April to attend the magistrate judge settlement conference by Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. After the referral was ordered, the companies said in a joint court filing that "as directed by the court, Apple and Samsung are both willing to participate" in the discussions. Koh has expressed a desire for the companies to try to settle some of their differences out of court. Earlier this month, Koh ordered the companies to pare down the number of claims each plans to make in their intellectual-property lawsuits against each other. The case is scheduled to go to trial on July 30, but Koh suggested that if the companies don't present a more workable set of claims, the trial start date could be delayed until next year. Their legal confrontation began in April 2011 when Apple filed a lawsuit in California accusing Samsung of copying "the look and feel" of its iPad tablet and iPhone smartphone. "Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smartphone products white louis vuitton bag and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple's technology, user interface, and innovative style in these infringing products," Apple complained. Samsung quickly responded with a countersuit against Apple, taking the fight overseas to South Korea, Japan, and Germany.

2012年5月17日星期四

The correlation even held for people who mostly drank decaf brew

Researchers have some reassuring news for the legions of coffee drinkers who can't get through the day without a latte, cappuccino, iced mocha, double-shot of espresso or www.designerburberyoutlet.com a plain old cuppa joe: That coffee habit may help you live longer. A new study that tracked the health and coffee consumption of more than 400,000 older adults for nearly 14 years found that java drinkers were less likely to die during the study than their counterparts who eschewed the brew. In fact, men and women who averaged four or five cups of coffee per day had the lowest risk of death, according to a report in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. The research doesn't prove that coffee deserves the credit for helping people live longer. But it is the largest analysis to date to suggest that the beverage's reputation for being a liquid vice may be undeserved. "There's been concerns for a long time that coffee might be a risky behavior," said study leader Neal Freedman, an epidemiologist with the National Cancer Institute who drinks coffee "here and there." "The results offer some reassurance that it's not a risk factor for future disease." Coffee originated in Ethiopia more than 500 years ago. As it spread through the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, its popularity was tempered by concerns about its supposed ill effects. A 1674 petition by aggrieved women in London complained that coffee left men impotent, "with nothing moist but their snotty noses, nothing stiff but their joints, nor standing but their ears," according to the book "Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World." In more modern times, the caffeinated beverage has been seen as "a stimulating substance, a commonly consumed drug," said Rob van Dam, an epidemiologist at the Burberry handbags outlet, cheap burberry bags on sale, 60% off National University of Singapore who has investigated the drink's health effects but was not involved in the latest study. "People get somewhat dependent on it," Van Dam said. "If you try to rapidly reduce coffee consumption, you get headaches or other symptoms." The National Coffee Assn. estimates that 64% of American adults drink coffee on a daily basis, with the average drinker consuming 3.2 cups each day. To get a deeper understanding of the risks and benefits of all that joe, the National Cancer Institute researchers turned to data on 402,260 adults who were between the ages of 50 and 71 when they joined the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study in 1995 and 1996. The volunteers were followed through December 2008 or until they died — whichever came first. When the team first crunched the numbers, coffee seemed to have a detrimental effect on longevity. But people who drink coffee are more likely to smoke, and when the scientists took that into account (along with other demographic factors), the opposite appeared to be true. Compared with men who didn't drink any coffee at all, those who drank just one cup per day had a 6% lower risk of death during the course of the study; those who drank two to three cups per day had a 10% lower risk, and those who had four to five cups had a 12% lower risk. For men who drank louis vuitton shoes women six cups or more, the apparent benefit waned slightly, with a 10% lower risk of death during the study compared with men who drank no coffee. The relationship between coffee and risk of death was even more dramatic in women. Those who drank one cup per day had 5% lower odds of dying during the study compared with women who drank none. Those who consumed two or three cups a day were 13% less likely to die, those who downed four or five cups were 16% less likely to die, and those who drank six or more cups had a 15% lower mortality rate. The effect held across a number of causes of death — including heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke and diabetes — but not cancer, the researchers found. And the link was stronger in coffee drinkers who had never smoked. The correlation even held for people who mostly drank decaf brew, the researchers found. "If these are real biological effects, they seem to [have] to do with the substances in coffee that are not caffeine," Van Dam said. Other compounds in the coffee could be linked to the lower death rates, he said — or there could be no causal relationship at all. And, Van Dam added, the researchers didn't make distinctions between different types of drinks. Unfiltered brews like Turkish coffee or Scandinavian boiled coffee have been shown to raise cholesterol and could present very different results from the current study if examined separately, he said. To prove that coffee deserves the credit, researchers louis vuitton t-shirts 2012 could study each of the 1,000-odd compounds in the brew and test them on subjects over time to see if they reduced inflammation, improved the body's sensitivity to insulin or caused any other useful biological effects, he said.

2012年5月16日星期三

It's one thing to lose when you're playing your best

The Los Angeles Kings have maintained their discipline and cool during a dominant playoff run that has them two wins away from the team's first Stanley Cup finals appearance since 1993 with Wayne Gretzky. They've frustrated the Phoenix Coyotes with a womens lv shoes cheap mix of balanced scoring, shot-limiting defense and solid goaltending in building a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals. If the Coyotes are ticked off, and they sure played like it in losing Game 2, they face even more of an uphill climb in trying to stop the Kings on the road. The Coyotes will have to do it without one of their top forwards. Martin Hanzal was suspended one game by the NHL on Wednesday for a huge hit on Kings captain Dustin Brown in Game 2. Hanzal was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for boarding at 11:01 of the third period Tuesday night. He will miss Game 3 on Thursday night at Staples Center. The punishment wasn't severe enough, according to Kings center Jarret Stoll. "Hopefully, he gets two games," Stoll said before the league's ruling came down. "Hopefully, he knew that Brownie was in a vulnerable position. If you're going to finish your check, maybe you grab him and you ride him in and then you close him that way on the boards. You don't shove him in the boards, especially when he's 5, 6 feet from the boards." Speaking before Hanzal's punishment was announced, Coyotes captain Shane Doan said, "He's very, very valuable and obviously a huge part of our team. Hopefully, they'll understand it's a situation where he really didn't have a choice." The game's other noteworthy hit was by Doan on Kings forward Trevor Lewis in the second period, when Lewis spun and faced the boards an instant before Doan hit him. Doan got a major boarding penalty and a game misconduct; Lewis' nose was bloodied after he was driven into the boards. "The Doan thing was kind of tough," Stoll said. "It's a hockey play." Coyotes coach Dave Tippett agreed. "I know there's lots of focus put on hits from behind, but to me that's a hockey play where a player puts himself in a vulnerable position," he said. "If you've ever played the game, if you're in that position, in a split second if that guy turns, you can't stop." Doan's hit came before Coyotes goalie Mike Smith slashed Brown's leg, with Doan's penalty leading to a 5-on-3 advantage that the Kings parlayed into another goal. "It doesn't make any sense to retaliate," Stoll said. "We were in a good situation to not retaliate. They want to get something going and set the tone maybe for the next game and maybe that was part of their mindset, but we just got to stay within the game, stay within ourselves." The Kings bring a franchise-record seven-game playoff winning streak into Game 3, having outscored Phoenix 8-2 so far in the series. Adding to the Coyotes' frustration was the fact that they were outshot 40-24 in Game 2, including 15-8 in the first period. "They got a couple of lucky bounces to get going and once you get going, it piles on itself and confidence is an amazing thing," Doan said after practice in Arizona. "So far, things have gone right for them in the playoffs and that's a credit to the way they've played, the way they've been coached. Once it starts to roll, it seems easier. We've got to find a way to get ours rolling." Smith spoke to his teammates after Game 2 about not playing their best hockey, and he included himself in the criticism. "It's one thing to lose when you're playing your best, but when you're losing games when you're not playing up to your capability, that's why it's frustrating," he said. "We start with one win right now and that's all can worry about. We can't win four games in one game. We're not looking too far ahead and this series is far from over." The Coyotes were called for 13 penalties totaling louis vuitton new bags 2012 prices 56 minutes on Tuesday. Jeff Carter scored two of his three goals while the Kings had a 5-on-3 advantage. "Frustration can't get the better of us," Tippett said. "Sometimes people expect us to come out and dominate the game, but that's not going to happen. We're a team that hangs around the game and we find a way to win. The frustration of not being able to do that in the first two games certainly was evident. We need to get back to playing the way we can, playing our style and find a way to win."

This open seat has taken a backseat in prominence to other states' races

Nebraska state Sen. Deb Fischer won the Republican nomination for an open U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday, official results showed, beating two better-funded candidacies louis vuitton shoes women for the opportunity to face off against a former U.S. Senator for the open seat in November. Fischer's upset toppled state Attorney General John Bruning, seen as the establishment candidate, and state Treasurer Don Stenberg, seen as the tea party favorite. The senate race in Nebraska was the most closely watched contest on Tuesday, when GOP voters there and in Oregon cast ballots in the presidential race. Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney was projected to win the presidential tally in Nebraska, standing at 71% with all precincts reporting, according to the Secretary of State website. In Oregon, he was ahead with 72% of the vote out of 100% of precincts tallied. Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania had approximately 14% of the Nebraska vote, several weeks after he suspending his White House bid. Texas Rep. Ron Paul had approximately 12% in the Oregon contest, held days after he announced that he would no longer actively campaign for the GOP nod. In the Nebraska senate race, Brunning and Stenberg, along with their allies, spent millions against each other, while Fischer picked up late endorsements from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and one-time GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain. She now goes head-to-head against former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey, who represented the state from 1988-2000, then chose not to seek reelection. The retirement of Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat, lv suits for men left an open seat and political trends there have led to independent handicappers favoring a Republican win come November. Fischer sailed relatively under the radar as Bruning and Stenberg waged war against each other and Kerry, who was presumed as the Democratic nominee, faced Republican challenges to his residency in Nebraska. After stepping down from the Senate in 2001, Kerrey lived and worked in New York. The majority of tea party-aligned individuals and groups split between Fischer's two rivals. Bruning received the support of Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Tea Party Express. "The federal government spends too much, taxes too much, regulates too much, and listens too little," he posted on his website. Stenberg -- hardly a political outsider -- was waging his fourth campaign for the U.S. Senate, and he won the party's nomination once. That was the year 2000, and he eventually lost the general election to Nelson. He was backed this cycle by the PAC behind the tea party, FreedomWorks, as well as Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and the Club for Growth. Long before GOP voters chose their nominee on Tuesday, two prominent and independent political handicappers rated the race as leaning towards the eventual Republican nominee. Reliable polling in the state has been scarce, but watchers of the race perceived Fischer as closing a gap between her and Bruning in the final days. The Cook Political Report lists the race as "likely" a Republican pickup -- which falls between "solid" and "lean" -- while the Rothenberg Political Report calls it "Republican favored," one step below a safe seat but three steps above a toss-up. A win in Nebraska would help Republicans wrestle a simple majority in the U.S. Senate from Democrats, a feat the GOP is four seats away from achieving. Democrats, meanwhile, are defending or facing a retirement in 23 of the 33 Senate seats up for election this year. And of the 10 open seats, seven are held by Democrats and three by Republicans. While the GOP candidates exchanged elbows through a series of television advertisements, they found time to beat up on Kerrey and were joined by national operations, such as the American Crossroads committee founded by Karl Rove. Within days of Kerrey's decision to enter the race -- he initially said he would not run, then two weeks later, announced he would -- Bruning was on the air with an ad questioning the former senator's residency and the influence of the former Cornhusker senator's time in New York. Kerrey is a "New York liberal," Bruning's ad went, while American Crossroads said, "A decade in Greenwich Village changed Bob Kerrey." The group also seized on his reluctance to enter cheap burberry bags the race, claiming in a radio ad that Kerry "cut his own secret deal with Democratic leaders in Washington, a deal so secret Kerrey won't talk about what promises were made." The state Republican Party even filed an official challenge of his residency with the Secretary of State's office. Kerrey's campaign manager, Paul Johnson, told CNN in March that the residency attacks were "insulting to Nebraskans" and that Bob is "a fiscal conservative" concerned with national debt and budget deficit. Other attacks have sought to tie Kerrey to outgoing Nelson -- who provided the 60th vote for Democrats to pass the health care overhaul. He agreed to support the bill after negotiating a compromise, which came to be known as the "Cornhusker Kickback." It would have modified federal abortion funding regulations and saved the state approximately $100 million on Medicare costs over a decade. As Republicans at home and nationwide protested, he had the provision removed, and said he did not wish his state to have an advantage over other states. Like others in the upper chamber who are retiring willingly or unwillingly this year, Nelson is known for casting votes with both sides of the aisle. This open seat has taken a backseat in prominence to other states' races, such as last week's primary defeat of Republican incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar in Indiana. But Nebraska has a front seat to an issue splitting the two parties this year. The controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, generally favored by Republicans and opposed by Democrats, was to stretch from Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast, bisecting Nebraska. But environmentalists worried about polluting the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies most of the state with drinking water. Nelson, the outgoing senator, easily won a second term in 2006, but as it became clear that Republicans considered his seat in play this cycle, Nelson made a December announcement that he would not seek a third term. "Simply put: It is time to move on," Nelson said burberry handbags cheap at the time. Nebraska is expected to be anything but tranquil as the race between Fischer and Kerrey heats up this summer. Don Walton, a political writer with the Lincoln Journal Star, had a simple warning in his pre-election Sunday column: "buckle up."

2012年5月15日星期二

AMD has released three different APU models for mainstream notebooks

Katherine Jenkins has offered an update on her condition after injuring herself on "Dancing with the Stars" stage. "Thank you for all your concerned tweets... I'm with the Doctor, he says it was a reflectorical spasm in my lower back," so she wrote on her Twitter after louis vuitton sunglasses 2012 getting a medical attention. In the second round of the Monday, May 14 semifinals, Katherine tweaked in her back at the end of her salsa with pro dancer partner Mark Ballas. Looking disappointed at herself, she covered her face with her hands as she had a meltdown, but insisted she's okay and told the judges to go on with their comments. Asked by co-host Brooke Burke what had just happened, she said at the lounge upstairs, "I just felt my back go as I went back. I'm so sorry if I've let you down, Mark." The judges excused her for the tumble and gave her 27 points for the routine. Mark later also commented on Katherine's injury. "I don't know [what happened]," he told E! Online. "I watched it back and it looks like it was a mixture of her foot slip and her back kind of tweaked when she tried to fix it and I was in the air when this happened." "So it's like being in a butterfly vertical over your partner and you see terror in her face. Time stood still for a second and I had to find a way to get underneath her and stand her back up. It's scary when those things happen. She doesn't need to apologize." Mark further pointed out the fact that Katherine was able louis vuitton hair pins to get up after stumbling on the floor was a good sign. "The good thing is that there is no bone damage, thank God, and hopefully there's no muscle or ligament damage," he said. "I just know from suffering past injuries that when you're done, you're done. You're not getting up, but she was up moving around so hopefully she'll be fine." AMD has launched their second generation Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) for mainstream and ultrathin notebooks, traditional and all-in-one desktops, HTPCs and embedded designs. Codenamed “Trinity”, the new APUs are described as a ground-up improvement over first generation components with double the performance per watt of Llano parts. As before AMD is not targeting the performance market and Trinity is not meant to compete direclty with Ivy Bridge for the most part. On the mobile market, Trinity should present an interesting alternative for ultrabook-style laptops where a balance of features, low power consumption, and cheap burberry bags integrated graphics are the norm. Trinity features an AMD Piledriver CPU core that uses 3rd gen Turbo Core technology that shifts power between the CPU and GPU as needed. The technology can effectively ramp up the CPU core clock to 3.2GHz. Other key features include a dual channel DDR3 memory controller, an AMD HD Media Accelerator, a unified northbridge and up to four Piledriver CPU cores with 2MB L2 cache. Radeon HD 7000 graphics are said to provide up to 56 percent better performance that the previous generation. Notebooks featuring Trinity APUs will boast battery life up to 12 hours through CPU and GPU power enhancements. “Our 2nd Generation AMD A-Series APU is a major step forward in every performance and power dimension, allowing users to enjoy a stunning experience without having to give up the things that matter to them most. This experience doesn‘t stop at mainstream notebooks. It carries over into affordable ultrathin form factors featuring the latest in AMD Radeon graphics,” said Chris Cloran, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD’s client business unit. AMD has released three different APU models for mainstream notebooks: A10-4600M, A8-4500M and A6-4400M, all featuring a 35W TDP with varying CPU core counts and clock burberry silk ties speeds. Ultrathins will see the quad-core A10-4655M clocked at 2.0GHz and carrying a 25W TDP while the dual-core A6-4455M will include a 17W TDP at 2.1GHz. AMD notes that desktop systems and component channel parts will be available later this year.

2012年5月13日星期日

New measures have been put in place to prevent another disaster

A year after the fires that wiped out a third of Slave Lake, the northern Alberta town is in a better position to combat out-of-control blazes. But the wounds to louis vuitton shoes its collective psyche are still healing. “It’s been the most challenging and frustrating year that you can ever imagine,” says Shelly Cuthbert, seated in the sunroom of her newly rebuilt house, while outside, her husband flattens mounds of dirt in a skid steer. “It’s just now you realize that everything is settling down.” The Cuthberts built their new home on the spot where their previous one burned to the ground in the fire that ravaged the community a year ago Tuesday. It was designed without front windows to avoid a view of the charred, skeletal remains of what was once a lush patch of trees. On their property in Widewater, a hamlet about 20 kilometres northwest of Slave Lake, a pole flying an unscathed Canadian flag remains intact, symbolic of the wildfire’s scattered path. In Slave Lake, homes that suffered little damage sit on the same block as houses that crumbled to ash. Neighbourhoods in several parts of town are in different phases of resurrection. Of the 333 single-family homes that were lost, 209 building permits have been filed so far to replace them. There is a plan underway for a 116-unit apartment building to replace the 169 units in louis vuitton hair pins multi-family complexes that were destroyed. While some families have already moved into new houses, lawyer Phil Lokken is anxious to get construction underway to replace the home he and his wife Laura had lived in for 22 years. “It was a numb feeling for a few months,” Lokken said. “We weren’t ready to start rebuilding.” Along with residential losses, the fire wiped out 10 businesses, three churches, the library and the town hall. Total damages came to $742 million, making it the second biggest insurable disaster in Canada after the 1998 Quebec ice storm. The province has committed $289 million to the recovery. A large chunk of that money is going to infrastructure repairs. “The community has a reduced capacity to function normally,” Mayor Karina Pillay-Kinnee says. “We know that. We know we’re creating a new normal.” There are also opportunities to give residents more cheap burberry bags than they had before. There’s a proposal to replace a slo-pitch field with a multi-recreational facility, and another for a family centre that can double as an evacuation centre. The rebuilding comes as Slave Lake faces a new round of extreme wildfire warnings. The unpredictable threats of dry forests, low humidity and strong winds loom constantly around the northern Alberta town. But new measures have been put in place to prevent another disaster. Eighty-eight firefighters — 80 volunteers, eight paid — are now part of region’s wildfire backstop, up from 63 last year. The town gets $20 million from the province for a program called FireSmart, which encourages residents to safeguard their homes against fires and provides new firefighting equipment. And every Monday until the end of the month, firefighters burn off dry grass in the area as a preventive measure. The recovery has exceeded Pillay-Kinnee’s expectations. But any victory cry at this stage is muted. “You don’t want to necessarily celebrate your successes,” she said. “People are still hurting and coping and trying to move on.” As residents look ahead, the RCMP continues to burberry watches search for clues in its arson investigation. It’s been six months since Sustainable Resource Development officers ruled out all other causes of the wildfire and handed the case over to RCMP.

2012年5月11日星期五

My hope is that this is viewed as bona fide hedging

JPMorgan Chase faced intense criticism Friday for claiming that a surprise $2-billion loss by one of its trading groups was the result of a sloppy but louis vuitton sunglasses well-intentioned strategy to manage financial risk. More than three years after the financial industry almost collapsed, the colossal misfire was cited as proof that big banks still do not understand the threats posed by their own speculation. "It just shows they can't manage risk -- and if JPMorgan can't, no one can," said Simon Johnson, the former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund. JPMorgan is the largest bank in the U.S. and was the only major bank to remain profitable during the 2008 financial crisis. That lent credibility to its tough-talking CEO, Jamie Dimon, as he opposed stricter regulation in the aftermath. But Dimon's contention that the $2-billion loss came from a hedging strategy that backfired, not an opportunistic bet with the bank's own money, faced doubt on Friday, discount louis vuitton handbags sale if not outright ridicule. "This is not a hedge," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chair of a subcommittee that investigated the crisis. He said the trades were instead a "major bet" on the direction of the economy, as published reports suggested. On Friday, Dimon told NBC News, for an interview airing Sunday on "Meet the Press," that he did not know whether JPMorgan had broken any laws or regulatory rules. He said the bank was "totally open" to regulators. The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Schapiro, told reporters that the agency was focused on the JPMorgan loss but declined to comment further. JPMorgan's disclosure Thursday recharged a debate about how to ensure that banks are strong and competitive without allowing them to become so big and complex that they threaten the financial system when they falter. The JPMorgan loss did not cause anything close to the panic that followed the September 2008 failure of the Lehman Brothers investment bank. But it shook the confidence of the financial industry. Within minutes after trading began on Wall Street, JPMorgan stock had lost almost 10%, wiping out about $15 billion in market value. It closed down 9.3%. Fitch Ratings also downgraded the bank's credit rating by one notch. Morgan Stanley and Citigroup closed down more than 4%, burberry handbags and Goldman Sachs closed down almost 4%. The broader stock market was down only slightly for the day. Dimon gave few details about the trades Thursday beyond saying they involved "synthetic credit positions," a type of the complex financial instruments known as derivatives. Enhanced oversight of derivatives was a pillar of the 2010 financial overhaul law, known as Dodd-Frank, but the implementation has been delayed repeatedly and will not take effect until the end of this year at the earliest. JPMorgan's trades show that the derivatives market remains too opaque for regulators to oversee effectively, said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., one of the law's namesakes. "When a supposedly responsible, well-run organization could make such an enormous mistake with derivatives, that really blows up the argument, 'Oh, leave us alone, we don't need you to regulate us,' " he said. Tim Ryan, president of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a trade group, said it was impossible to legislate or regulate risk out of the financial system. "My hope is that this is viewed as bona fide hedging, but it went wrong," he said in an interview. "A mistake was made. Money is going to be lost. It's not customer money. It's not government money. It's JPMorgan's money, the shareholders of JPMorgan." No one seemed to suggest Friday that designer burberry cheap bags for women brown sale JPMorgan had broken a law. But the mistake added a wrinkle to the still-unsettled discussion about how the financial industry should be regulated in the aftermath of 2008.

2012年5月10日星期四

Astronomical records were key to the Mayan calendar

Archaeologists have found a small room in Mayan ruins where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society's cheap louis vuitton sunglasses intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago. The walls reveal the oldest known astronomical tables from the Maya. Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later. Astronomical records were key to the Mayan calendar, which has gotten some attention recently because of doomsday warnings that it predicts the end of the world this December. Experts say it makes no such prediction. The new finding provides a bit of backup: The calculations include a time span longer than 6,000 years that could extend well beyond 2012. "Why would they go into those numbers if the world is going to come to an end this year?" observed Anthony Aveni of Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., an expert on Mayan astronomy. "You could say a number that big at least suggests that time marches on." Aveni, along with William Saturno of Boston University and others, report the discovery in Friday's issue of the journal Science. The room, a bit bigger than 6-feet square, is part of louis vuitton jewelry a large complex of Mayan ruins in the rain forest at Xultun in northeastern Guatemala. The walls also contain portraits of a seated king and some other figures, but it's clear those have no connection to the astronomical writings, the scientists said. One wall contains a calendar based on phases of the moon, covering about 13 years. The researchers said they think it might have been used to keep track of which deity was overseeing the moon at particular times. Aveni said it would allow scribes to predict the appearance of a full moon years in advance, for example. Such record-keeping was key to Mayan astrology and rituals, and maybe would be used to advise the king on when to go to war or how good this year's crops would be, he said. "`What you have here is astronomy driven by religion," he said. On an adjacent wall are numbers indicating four time spans from roughly 935 to 6,700 years. It's not clear what they represent, but maybe the scribes were doing calculations that combined observations from important astronomical events like the movements of Mars, Venus and the moon, the researchers said. Why bother to do that? Maybe the scribes were "geeks ... who just got carried away with doing these kinds of computations and calculations, and probably did them far beyond the needs of ordinary society," Aveni suggested. Experts unconnected with the discovery said it was a significant advance. "It's really a wonderful surprise," said Simon Martin, cheap burberry bagsco-curator of an exhibit about the Mayan calendar at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. While the results of the scribes' work were known from carvings on monuments, "we've never really been able to identify a working space, or how they actually went about things," Martin said. The new work gives insight into that, he said, and the fact the room had a stone roof rather than thatching supports previous indications that the scribes enjoyed a high social standing. "It's a very important discovery. We're only getting burberry watches a glimpse of it" in the published paper, said John B. Carlson, director of the Center for Archaeoastronomy in College Park, Md. "This is an intriguing start for this discovery."

2012年5月8日星期二

The study raises an important issue

Wildlife Conservation Society researchers have captured video footage of the world’s rarest gorilla using camera traps, providing a stunning look at animals that usually flee at the first sight of humans. Burberry handbags outlet, burberry 2012 new arrivals on sale, including cheap burberry bags, shoes, watches, sunglasses, clothing and accessories for men and women, with high quality and low price. Eight Cross River gorillas traveling across a forest path were filmed by one of four video camera traps researchers set in Cameroon’s Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary. A combination of habitat destruction and hunting has reduced the species’ total population to less than 250, making it the world’s rarest gorilla. Christopher Jameson, who directs WCS’s Takamanda Mone Landscape Project, said the video “represents the best images to date of Cross River gorillas.” “The footage provides us with our first tantalizing glimpses of Cross River gorillas behaving normally in their environment,” Jameson said in a statement. “A person can study these animals for years and never even catch a glimpse of the gorillas, much less see anything like this.” The government of Cameroon created the sanctuary in 2008, http://www.designerburberyoutlet.com/ with support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in an effort to protect the remaining Cross River gorillas. Fish and Wildlife — along with the groups Pro Wildlife, Berggorilla and World Wide Fund for Nature — joined WCS in paying for the camera traps and other monitoring equipment. The quantity of small plastic fragments floating in the north-east Pacific Ocean has increased a hundred fold over the past 40 years. Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography documented the big rise when they trawled the waters off California. They were able to compare their plastic "catch" with previous data for the region. The group reports its findings in the journal Biology Letters. "We did not expect to find this," says Scripps researcher Miriam Goldstein. "When you go out into the North Pacific, what louis vuitton shoes you find can be highly variable. So, to find such a clear pattern and such a large increase was very surprising," she told BBC News. All the plastic discarded into the ocean that does not sink will eventually break down. Sunlight and the action of the waves will degrade and shred the material over time into pieces the size of a fingernail, or smaller. An obvious concern is that this micro-material could be ingested by marine organisms, but the Scripps team has noted another, perhaps unexpected, consequence. The fragments make it easier for the marine insect (Halobates sericeus) to lay its eggs out over the ocean. These "sea skaters" or "water striders" - relatives of pond water skaters - need a platform for the task. Normally, this might be seabird feathers, tar lumps or even pieces of pumice rock. But it is clear from the trawl results that H. sericeus has been greatly aided by the numerous plastic surfaces now available to it in the Pacific. The team found a strong association between the presence of Halobates and the micro-plastic in a way that was just not evident in the data from 40 years ago. Ms Goldstein explained: "We thought there might be fewer Halobates if there's more plastic - that there might be some sort of toxic effect. But, actually, we found the opposite. In the areas that had the most plastic, we found the most Halobates. "So, they're obviously congregating around this plastic, laying their eggs on it, and hatching out from it. For Halobates, all this plastic has worked out well for them." Ms Goldstein and colleagues gathered their information on the abundance of micro-plastic during the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (Seaplex) off California in 2009. They then compared their data with those from other scientific cruises, including louis vuitton menswear archived records stretching back to the early 1970s. Plastic waste in the North Pacific is an ongoing concern. The natural circulation of water - the North Pacific Gyre - tends to retain the debris in reasonably discrete, long-lived collections, which have popularly become known as "garbage patches". In the north-eastern Pacific, one of these concentrations is seen in waters between Hawaii and California. This Scripps study follows another report by colleagues at the institution that showed 9% of the fish collected during the same Seaplex voyage had plastic waste in their stomachs. That investigation, published in Marine Ecology Progress Series, estimated the fish at intermediate ocean depths in the North Pacific Ocean could be ingesting plastic at a rate of roughly 12,000 to 24,000 tonnes per year. Rope Crabs, barnacles, sea anemones and hydroids make a home on a piece of discarded rope Toxicity is the issue most often raised in relation to this type of pollution, but Ms Goldstein and colleagues say broader ecosystem effects also need to be studied. The abundance of ocean debris will influence the success, or otherwise, of "rafting communities" - those species that are specifically adapted to life on or around objects floating in the water. Larger creatures would include barnacles and crabs, and even fish that like to live under some kind of cover, but large-scale change would likely touch even the smallest organisms. "The study raises an important issue, which is the addition of hard surfaces to the open ocean," says Ms Goldstein. "In the North Pacific, for example, there's no floating seaweed like there is in the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic. And we know that the animals, the plants and the microbes that live on hard surfaces are different to the ones that live floating around in the water. "So, what plastic has done is add hundreds of Luxury louis vuitton men shoes 2012 best online discount white millions of hard surfaces to the Pacific Ocean. That's quite a profound change." Ms Goldstein's co-authors were Marci Rosenberg, a student at the University of California Los Angeles, and Scripps research biologist emeritus Lanna Cheng.

2012年5月7日星期一

Outside climate experts say the study makes some sense

Potty humor just got prehistoric. A new study suggests louis vuitton shoes that dinosaurs may have helped keep an already overheated world warmer with their flatulence and burps 200 million years ago. The research published Monday in Current Biology suggests that large dinosaurs made a significant contribution to the greenhouse effect back then. Study author David Wilkinson of Liverpool John Moores University in England estimated that about 570 million tons of methane came from dinosaurs. That’s similar to total atmospheric levels of methane today produced by livestock, farming and industry. Cows alone now produce nearly 100 tons a year of methane. The study looks at the biggest — and presumably gassiest — dinosaurs, called sauropods. These were the long-necked plant eaters that munched on the top of trees. They were large animals that had food fermenting in their guts for long periods of time because of their giant size, said University of Maryland paleontologist Thomas Holtz, who wasn’t part of the study. Burberry handbags outlet, burberry 2012 new arrivals on sale, including cheap burberry bags, shoes, watches, sunglasses, clothing and accessories for men and women, with high quality and low price. Wilkinson said dinosaur gas was just one factor at a time when the world was quite tropical, about 18 degrees warmer than now (10 degrees Celsius). But he said some in the media and blogosphere have misinterpreted his study to say it was the main cause of ancient warming. Wilkinson said it was only of the causes, but dinosaur gas “is big enough to be a measurable effect,” he said in a phone interview. What caused the ancient pre-human world to be http://www.designerburberyoutlet.com/ so hot — just the way the dinosaurs needed it — was a variety of factors. Volcanoes spewed much more greenhouse gases than now, Holtz said. Swamps, water currents, shallow seas and plentiful plankton combined to raise greenhouse gas levels far higher than today, he said. Outside climate experts say the study makes some sense, but that the warming from dinosaur gas back then is dwarfed by man-made carbon dioxide today from industry. NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt louis vuitton wallets quickly ran some calculations based on Wilkinson’s figures. Dinosaur methane would have hiked temperatures about half a degree (0.3 degrees Celsius), which is a fraction of what’s been caused by the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil in the 20th Century, he said. It’s also wrong to suggest the study blames dinosaur flatulence for their extinction, Holtz said. He noted that the sauropods started showing up — and getting gassy — around 200 million years ago and didn’t die off until 65 million years ago. University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver said: “Frankly, Designer louis vuitton women shoes 2012 style outlet black methane emissions from dinosaur burps is probably not the No. 1 thing we should be concerned about in modern society.”

2012年5月6日星期日

I haven't had time to tear through all of the features yet

I'm a sucker for a smartphone with a nice camera. It isn't an absolute necessity – I did own the Galaxy Nexus for four months, after all – because I generally carry louis vuitton sneakers price 2012 an iPhone as a secondary, and it gets the job done quite well. But having a primary device that also has a great image sensor is just that much better. Despite my love for the Galaxy Note's 5.3-inch Super AMOLED display and S Pen, my mouth began salivating when HTC unveiled the One X and One S at Mobile World Congress in March. They touted the sleek, unibody design, speed (powered by either a quad-core Tegra 3 or dual-score Qualcomm S4 chip) and vastly improved camera software and hardware. Aside from the truly giant screen I'd grown used to, it was everything I wanted in a phone. Of all the features boasted, the image sensors and software, dubbed ImageSense, warranted the most attention, as that's an area where many Android phones fall short of the competition. That said, after several letdowns, I learned my lesson. I'm no longer quick to believe a company just because a they claim their phones can yield better pictures. Shortly after Mobile World Congress, Managing Editor of HTC's official blog, Larry Meadows, uploaded some sample shots that had been taken with an HTC One device on his trip to Camelback Mountain. To say the least, they were nothing to get excited over. The pictures louis vuitton sneakers were blurry, bland and devoid of color and sharpness. So, I wrote about it. After talking with Mr. Meadows I was convinced there might be more to the story. But after some (very brief) hands-on time with the One X, I still wasn't impressed. This morning, however, I made my way to the local AT&T store and picked up an HTC One X for my personal line. I spent a lot of time setting it up and getting intimate with the new version of Sense. I also took set aside some time to extensively play with the camera. I didn't get to play with every feature – there's a lot to dig through. But I hit most of the high spots and just took a bunch of different shots in various conditions. I'm impressed. No … seriously, I'm impressed. Above is one of the first shots I took with the One X. (Click the image for a larger view.) I kneeled down, tapped the flower on the viewfinder and hit the shutter button. I wasn't men lv shoes fast shipping even aware it had taken the shot yet, but this is what it produced. I also took a similar shot with my Sony NEX-C3, just for comparison and the only major difference was the depth of field and resolution of the image (8-megapixel versus 16). Colors are true, lines are sharp and it's just a very well-balanced image. The top of the flower is a little overexposed. But overall, for a phone, it's great. For times when the lighting isn't ideal, the BSI (backside illumination) sensor makes for pretty great low-light shots, too, at the expense of quite a bit of noise. Images appear rather sharp in low-light, especially for a phone, but the level of noise is high. I took roughly the same shot with the One X and the iPhone 4S. Sharpness and quality were the same while the iPhone 4S designer burberry outlet offered truer blacks with some white balance issues. The picture from the One X represented more natural colors, but the blacks were faded. As far as software features go, ImageSense comes packed with a plethora of different modes: Auto, HDR, Panorama, Portrait, Group portrait, Landscape, Whiteboad, Close up and Low light. There are also several different filters to choose from, like Distortion, Vignette, Depth of field, Dots, Mono, Country, Posterize, etc. Above is an HDR (high dynamic range) shot of my totally insane dog who rarely sits still. By far, my favorite features are continuous shooting (burst mode) and simultaneous video and image capture. Burst mode is likely something I will use all the time, as I do that with my NEX-C3 quite often. And simultaneous video and image capture is seriously neat (especially since you Burberry handbags outlet, cheap burberry bags on sale, 60% off can capture stills after you shoot the video, too), but I imagine the novelty factor of that feature will wear off as I continue to use the phone. Like I said, I haven't had time to tear through all of the features yet, or put the camera through a true test. (That's what Aaron's review is for.) Often, the idiosyncrasies of a phone's camera will begin to drive me nuts over weeks and months of use. I've only had it for a total of eight hours. But, so far, I'm really enjoying it, and it seems better than any other Android camera I've used to date. Is it a match for the iPhone? Honestly, it's a toss-up. And I never imagined I would say that. (After the letdown of the Lumia 900's camera, I didn't get my hopes up for this one either.) Some aspects of the iPhone's camera are better than the One X's, and vice versa ImageSense packs nearly endless features while the stock iPhone camera has very few. The iPhone, however, consistently takes more balanced images, versus the faster shutter speed but more frequent misses by the One X. Regardless, ImageSense speaks yellow handbags 2012 volumes for the effort HTC put into the image sensors on their One devices. And we can only hope others will follow suit. Tell me, One X and One S owners. Are you impressed with your phone's camera? Does it meet or exceed your expectations? Or, like I once believed ImageSense would be, is it a letdown?

2012年5月4日星期五

This country works best when we work together as a family

The presumptive Democratic nominee for Senate devoted much of his speech at the party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner Friday night to laying out a contrast louis vuitton sneakers price 2012 with the ascending Richard Mourdock, the two-term state treasurer on the cusp of ending Lugar’s political career. Donnelly never mentioned Lugar during his address to the 1,200 Democrats gathered inside a ballroom at the J.W. Marriott in downtown Indianapolis. But he directed plenty of fire at Mourdock. He laced into the insurgent Republican Senate candidate for opposing the federal bailout package that rescued the flailing Chrysler auto company — previewing a key argument he’ll launch if Mourdock upsets Lugar in Tuesday’s primary. In May 2009, Mourdock became the country’s only government official to challenge the assistance package in court. It was a risky political decision that earned Mourdock national notoriety and instant credibility with the burgeoning tea party movement. Yet it’s clear Democrats see it as a damaging louis vuitton sneakers vulnerability. “It was forced by Richard Mourdock, who wouldn’t stand up for Hoosier workers,” Donnelly said, referring to Mourdock’s lawsuit that was ultimately unsuccessful. Donnelly also took aim at Mourdock for blaming bipartisanship for “taking us to the brink of bankruptcy.” “Richard Mourdock has said he is opposed to bipartisanship. I am the fifth of five kids. As the fifth of five kids, if you are not bipartisan, you do not eat at night,” Donnelly said to laughs. “This country works best when we work together as a family. When we go to Washington, not just as Democrats, or Republicans but as Americans who are committed to making louis vuitton jewelry our country a stronger and better place. And that’s what we’re going to talk about throughout this Senate campaign. Who will fight for you? Who will fight for your job? Who will fight for your future? These are the basics. Have a good job. Take care of your family. Send your kids to a good school. Retire with dignity. We stand for those things. Richard Mourdock does not,” Donnelly argued. Even likely Democratic gubernatorial nominee John Gregg — who is running an uphill fight against GOP Rep. Mike Pence — got in on the Mourdock bashing, referencing an early comment made by former Democratic Rep. Baron Hill. “This year the choice is clear. Baron was talking about how Joe Donnelly was no Richard Mourdock. Well, let me tell you something, Mike Pence is Richard Mourdock,” the colorful Gregg said to deafening cheers. Even before the release of Friday’s Howey/DePauw Indiana Battleground poll showing Lugar down by 10 points, many observers saw Lugar heading towards defeat. But the bipartisan poll only hardened the sentiment. Indiana’s reddening hue means Donnelly black lv suits would remain an underdog against Mourdock this fall. But a Lugar loss would undoubtedly energize national Democrats and Donnelly’s campaign, which was essentially built around the scenario of facing Mourdock.

2012年5月3日星期四

James even said that having a child during the playoffs might be a positive

Bosh flew more than 3,600 miles in a span of about 24 hours -- starting with the team's charter to New York on Wednesday, then an unplanned trip back to Miami louis vuitton women sunglasses 2012 latest collections that night after receiving word that his wife was in labor, and ultimately back to New York. His son, Jackson, was born healthy at about 3 a.m. ET. "A great moment for their family," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. Bosh returned to New York on Thursday around 4:30 p.m., louis vuitton sunglasses prices and arrived at Madison Square Garden long before the 7 p.m. tipoff. "He's very excited," Spoelstra said. "While he may not be fully rested, he has an incredible amount of excitement right now." Bosh's wife Adrienne posted a photo of Bosh boarding a charter jet to a social media account late Wednesday night with the caption of, "Thank God for private flights...Hurry home Baby." Adrienne also posted a photo of Chris louis vuitton 2012 ladies sneakers holding his newborn son to Twitter. "From a Dream, To a Thought, To Reality, To being in our Arms," Adrienne Bosh posted on Twitter a few hours after giving birth. Several of Bosh's teammates expected him to be able to return and play. They were trading stories about how they had handled the same situation. Shane Battier and Mike Miller both had children during the playoffs last year. LeBron James had a child during the 2007 Finals. James even said that having a child during the playoffs might be a positive. "This is a great way to get away from it, to come back here and play the game of basketball," James said. "To get away from the kid and get away from everything black lv suits that's going on with that. I mean that's what I did, I got away from my family and I was able to go play in the Finals. ... I would bet he'd be here, this is a huge game."

2012年5月2日星期三

Tracy raved about the bullpen before the game

The Rockies do nothing without drama. After blowing a 5-3 lead in the top of the ninth, the Rockies beat the Dodgers 8-5 Wednesday afternoon at Coors Field with a louis vuitton sunglasses sale three-run, pinch-hit home run by Jason Giambi in the bottom of the inning. The home run salvaged the day for the Rockies, who nearly squandered a game featuring the best start of rookie left-hander Drew Pomeranz's young career and two home runs by red-hot Carlos Gonzalez. Key moment. The little guys set the table in the bottom of the ninth, with Eric Young Jr. and Marco Scutaro drawing walks and Jonathan Herrera advancing them with a perfect sacrifice bunt down the first-base line. That set the stage for Giambi's walkoff homer off lefty Scott Elbert. It was Giambi's eighth career pinch-hit homer, his fifth as a Rockie. "It's a dream situation with Cargo standing on deck," Giambi said. "This is what keeps you coming back to the park." On the mound. The Rockies got a rare one-two punch from a starter: quantity and quality. Pomeranz masterfully mixed his fastball and curve over 6 2-3 innings. He allowed just one run on four hits and struck out five. Although he walked four, only one walk hurt him, that coming in the second when A.J. Ellis came around to score. "I told myself before the game that I wanted to have an outing where I got deeper into the game," Pomeranz said. "It was a day where I honestly didn't feel like I had my louis vuitton hoodie best stuff, but that's pitching. But I did have a lot of movement on my fastball and I ended up throwing pretty well." Pomeranz threw a career-high 113 pitches, sticking around long enough to lessen the load on Colorado's overworked bullpen. "He was terrific today," manager Jim Tracy said. "He had his curveball and he had it for strikes. His fastball was moving and it was the Drew Pomeranz we saw in spring training." Tracy raved about the bullpen before the game, but it crumbled late in the game. Rex Brothers failed to hold a 2-1 lead in the eighth, giving up a two-run double to Jerry Hairston. In the ninth, closer Rafael Betancourt blew his first save of the season, giving up a two-out, two-run double to Dee Gordon, which tied the game, 5-5. At the plate. When Gonzalez gets hot, he burns everything in his path — including Cy Young Award winners. CarGo's second home run of the day, both off Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw, was a two-run shot in the Rockies' three-run eighth inning. On the current homestand, Gonzalez is 11-for-23 (.478) with five homers, 14 RBIs and nine runs scored. "When my hands feel good, I feel like I can hit any pitch," Gonzalez said. "Today, I hit a home run on a fastball and another one on a slider. It doesn't matter what pitch they throw me, when I'm trusting my hands and I swing at balls in the strike zone, I can hit like this." Catcher Wilin Rosario still struggles against big-league breaking pitches, but he cranks on fastballs. He led off the Rockies fifth with a solo homer to dead center on a 2-1 fastball from Kershaw, giving Colorado a 2-1 lead. Dexter Fowler (1-for-4) steered an RBI single through the box in the eighth, scoring Scutaro. What it means. The Dodgers came into town as the 2012 white louis vuitton handbags National League's hottest team with a 16-6 record, but the Rockies took two of three from them. After a day off Thursday, the Rockies host the Braves for three games with a chance to turn what's been a mediocre homestand (3-3) into a solid one.

2012年5月1日星期二

If Anthony's Knicks are ever going to win a title

There's no way to defend how Amare Stoudemire lacerated his left hand, by punching a fire extinguisher in frustration after the New York Knicks' playoff loss to the louis vuitton shoes Miami Heat. But the morning-after outrage that has taken hold since -- this idea that Stoudemire should be thrown on some scrap heap because he's never going to amount to anything as long as he has to play with the Knicks' latest flavor du jour, Carmelo Anthony -- is all wrong. Stoudemire isn't going anywhere because of his contract. He can also make a big contribution to the Knicks when he's healthier. And Anthony should be trying to make it work, too, not just Mike Woodson or whomever the Knicks' next permanent coach is. Because what's always the complaint about the Knicks, as presently constructed? Melo needs help. And who's best equipped among the current Knicks to give Anthony reliable offensive help? It's still Stoudemire, that's who. So if you really care about the Knicks' immediate future at all, show some better emotional control than Stoudemire did. Then fall back in love with him as quickly as you fell out of love Monday night. Remember, the Knicks were always going to lose this playoff series to Miami, even before Stoudemire hurt himself and they fell behind in the series 0-2. Who's kidding whom? Now, what Anthony and everyone else associated with the Knicks should really do is forget what or where Stoudemire is or isn't, and start taking notes on how LeBron James and Dwyane Wade navigated all that early talk that they, too, would never fit together, for many of the same reasons Anthony and Stoudemire supposedly can't. James and Wade heard they were supposedly too similar as players; they both needed the ball the too much of time; they like to operate on the same places on the court. How's that working out now? Have Wade and James not pretty much figured it out? Stoudemire and Anthony aren't as talented as those two Heat stars are. But Stoudemire can still be a serviceable player. And Anthony has to be invested in making Stoudemire's presence work if winning NBA titles, not just scoring titles, is really the goal. There really is a lot to recommend standing by Stoudemire, even if he isn't the same All-NBA player he was at age 25 in Phoenix. And it's not just the fact that his $100 million contract and unreliable back and knees make him impossible to trade. He's still the second-best offensive player the louis vuitton lady vest Knicks have, not Tyson Chandler or J.R. Smith or Steve Novak or Jeremy Lin (another teammate, by the way, who supposedly got in Anthony's way before Anthony helped show Mike D'Antoni the door). Nobody really wants to hear this right now after what Stoudemire just did to himself, but Stoudemire really is a good teammate, too, with a demonstrated a willingness to put winning and the Knicks franchise first. And that's important. Anthony and Stoudemire didn't work well together the way they were used under D'Antoni. But why can't Woodson or the next guy find a way, especially if both stars are willing? Why can't it be as simple as keeping Stoudemire and Anthony in the starting lineup for the first seven or eight minutes of a game, then alternating their playing time thereafter to keep one of them the team's primary scorer when the other is off the floor? Why is that so hard to figure out, or implement? It's not. Or at least it's not when everyone "buys in" -- two words all the Knicks have used more than any others to explain why they suddenly took off the minute Woodson took over. Stoudemire was dumb to punch a glass case containing a fire extinguisher on Monday night, it's true. But remember, Anthony didn't exactly cover himself in glory when he admitted everything in his game spiked up because he began "playing harder" -- his words -- once D'Antoni was run off. The surest, fastest way for the Knicks to be a real contender in the near future, given their salary-cap constraints, is for Stoudemire to get back to some approximation of the player he used to be when healthy. And for Anthony to push himself to be more, too. If Anthony's Knicks are ever going to win a title, what's going to be most determinative isn't whether Stoudemire, at this stage of his career, can score 20 points per game -- it's how much Anthony, who has the far better upside, can close the gap between himself and LeBron or Kobe Bryant. Because right now Anthony isn't in either Kobe or LeBron's league when it comes to making players around him better, picking his spots and translating all the talent he has into wins. Not just points. Because you know what that proves: next to nothing. At least not until Anthony also wins the Knicks a few playoff series. Of the two of them, Stoudemire actually has the better career playoff record than Anthony, though nobody would argue Stoudemire is the better player. So how did that happen? By now you should know the answer -- it's the moral of this story. It's a little three-word slogan that Knicks' management should hang up Bestseller louis vuitton shoes for men discount on sale 2012 blue in block letters on Madison Square Garden marquee rather than sell this fiction that if everyone just gets the hell out of Anthony's way, milk and honey will flow through the streets of Manhattan and the titles will come because Anthony scores a lot.